Twenty months after floodwaters ravaged his South Main Street auto repair business, Albert Caron sat before a trio of federal officials whose agency once drove him crazy.

Vermont U.S. Rep. Peter Welch asked the group from the U.S. Small Business Administration to return to Waterbury on Monday to listen to business owners describe their experience seeking help during the weeks -- and months -- after the storm.

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Was it hard to hear?

"Yes, it is," said SBA Associate Administrator Jeanne Hulit. "It is because I know the intent of the program and the quality of the people working to deliver it."

Caron is the owner of the Waterbury Service Center. He said he suffered almost $200,000 in damage and losses to his building and equipment when three feet of floodwater swept through his business on Aug. 28, 2011.

He was quickly overwhelmed and applied for emergency assistance through the Vermont Economic Development Authority. He says he got a check within a few days.

Caron also applied for an SBA loan. "I needed all the help I could get," he said, and for the next several months found himself bouncing between eight and ten different SBA representatives by phone in Fort Worth, TX who made conflicting demands of him and didn't seem to communicate with each other about his case.

"To be honest," Caron told Hulit in a spartan conference room above the Waterbury police station, "if it happens again, I'd never call the SBA just because it just isn't worth it."

Jeffrey Larkin, another local business owner, echoed some of Caron's concerns. He said SBA required he submit a mountain of paperwork, some of which washed away in the flood, in order to win a somewhat lower interest loan. It became exhausting.

"If it takes too long, it's useless," Welch said at one point during Monday's hearing, "That's really what it boils down to."

Hulit said some of the bureaucracy is inherent in the law Congress handed them, while some might stem from a natural defensiveness among government staffers aware that every loan decision involving taxpayer dollars could be scrutinized and audited by the U.S. Inspector General.

Documentation reigns supreme.

"Congress shares some of the blame here," Welch said.

Still, Hulit said, her agency can do better, and is working to streamline and simplify.

Even after his $50,000 SBA loan, his $60,000 VEDA loan, and an $80,000 insurance settlement finally came through, Caron still has tens of thousands of dollars in out of pocket losses, he said. New siding for his garage, for example, must wait for an uptick in business he hopes will come this summer.

"I've been through a lot,' he said Monday. "Nothing I can't handle. though."